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Baker, Jessica. "Perceptions of World Englishes." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1491951177686307.
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Morais, Katia Vieira. "Negotiating Linguistic Diversity in World Englishes and World Portugueses." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194113.
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In this dissertation, I draw on comparative studies of English to establish a framework for looking at how Portuguese studies and teaching are shaped by political economies, cultural hierarchies, and educational institutions in Brazil and Cape Verde. I examine how English and Portuguese are constructed as world languages and how English and Portuguese rhetorics shape language teaching. People who are locally engaged contest these global constructions. As a result, diverse people construct world languages by adopting, adapting, resist, and transforming it in specific locations (Pennycook). First, I identify compositionists in the U.S. with what I call a rhetoric of multilingualism in which teachers of English should view English in relation to other Englishes and other languages. Secondly, I examine how the transnational organization for Portuguese-speaking countries perpetrates lusotropicalism--Gilberto Freyre's social theory of the Portuguese exceptionality to create a hybrid culture in the tropics. Despite fostering adaptability to local cultures, peoples, and languages, Freyre's lusotropical rhetoric eschews diversity by maintaining that a culture and a language should promote homogeneity. Then, I analyze the linguistic contexts, educational policies, and data gathered from questionnaires and interviews with language teachers in Brazil and Cape Verde. In light of higher education expansion and the maintenance of excellence, I argue that language teachers should promote the writing of Portuguese as a rhetorical construction in which grammar and mechanical correctness is only one aspect of writing instruction. Lastly, I propose the use of code meshing as a pedagogical strategy in academic discourse because it values language in its diversity and its relation to other languages. I argue that students' multilingual strategies deserve a place in academic writing. The rhetorical construction of language in academia could also become multilingual--globally networked and locally engaged. This study contributes to the internationalist discussions about how to teach writing in different languages and educational contexts.
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Ogilvie, Sarah. "Loanwords, World Englishes, and the Oxford Englisn Dictionary." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.517305.
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Minnich, Anja Nicole. "Conceptualising English : a metaphorology of models in the discipline of world Englishes." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.614995.
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Lok, Mai-chi Ian, and 樂美志. "Cultural understanding in English studies: anexploration of postcolonial and world Englishes perspectives." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2006. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B35804749.
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Lok, Mai-chi Ian. "Cultural understanding in English studies an exploration of postcolonial and world Englishes perspectives /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2006. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B35804749.
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Kurtak-McDonald, Leilani Faye Louise. "World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, and the Pedagogical Implications for TESOL." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/321787.
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Almegren, Afnan. "Saudi EFL learners' awareness of world Englishes : second language varieties." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2017. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=232282.
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It is important to understand the attitudes of students towards varieties of English so that better pedagogical and educational policies can be created and adopted. This study therefore attempts to investigate the attitudes of young Saudi EFL learners towards the concept of World Englishes in the context of their culture. The preference of Saudi learners for one variety of English over the others is also explored. Research on the awareness of World Englishes among Saudi EFL learners is limited; this study is designed to fill this gap. For the purpose of this research, three objectives were formulated – to understand how World Englishes, and second language varieties in particular, are perceived in the Saudi Arabian context by EFL learners; to explore the apparent domination of one English variety over others based on Saudi EFL learners' points of view; and to understand reasons behind the preference for one kind of English over the others. The study was conducted through both direct and indirect techniques of attitude measurement, via questionnaire and interviews. The questionnaire was designed as a verbal guise test combined with closed and open-ended questions. The sample of this study was a mixture of adult male and female students from two of Saudi Arabia's largest public educational environments. The findings of this study reveal that Saudi students are aware of at least some of the varieties of English. However, their attitudes towards these different world Englishes vary. They perceive British and American English as the standard benchmark and are not very accepting of non-native variants of World Englishes. It was also found that although most students preferred the English of native English teachers, they wanted to be taught by a teacher from Saudi Arabia because of their shared background.
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Ortu, Laura. "World Englishes: Attitude in the Expanding Circle Towards East and Southeast Asian Varieties of English." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-191503.
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English has become an essential part in our lives. It is inevitable to formulate an opinion when we meet a new person, and in particular we tend to focus our attention on the way this person speaks. The present research aims to answer the questions on how a European audience (Italian audience) perceives different varieties of English to which it is exposed. Four different speakers from four different Southeast and East Asian countries were selected and recorded while reading a short text. These recordings were submitted to the audience, which was asked to answer a set of questions about comprehensibility and likability. Results show that the audience elected as their favourite speaker the clearest accent to hear, thus suggesting that the members of the audience might have been influenced by comprehensibility and accentedness in the first place. Other variables, such as expressiveness, were not significantly considered by the participants.
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Shrestha, Dipak. "Nepali English and news discourse: a linguistic and sociolinguistic study of Australian and Nepail news texts in English." Thesis, Curtin University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2250.
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This thesis describes and analyses distinctive characteristics of the emerging variety of English, that is, Nepali English. It draws on news texts written in Nepali English and compares them with similar news texts appearing in Australian newspapers. On the basis of the analysis, a preliminary taxonomy of markers of Nepali English is established.The research draws theoretical insights from sociolinguistics, contrastive rhetoric/contrastive discourse analysis and the analysis of news as discourse. Findings and the analysis of the findings are presented by using analytical models developed and widely used in the study of non-native varieties of English. Analysis and discussion of the findings suggest that systematic and regular features of Nepali English have developed, and these formal features have specific functions in the context in which they are used.
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Pernão, Anabela Fé Fonseca. "Portuguese english: is it possible? analyzing the emergence of an english variety in Portugal." Master's thesis, Universidade de Évora, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10174/15724.
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O objectivo desta dissertação é analisar e alcançar determinadas conclusões
acerca do Inglês falado em Portugal e como a Língua Portuguesa pode influenciar este
último ou não. Os dados serão recolhidos através de pesquisa teórica e investigação de
campo baseados em abordagens quantitativas e qualitativas (questionário e entrevista)
aplicados a alunos universitários de várias licenciaturas na Universidade de Évora. O
principal objectivo é compreender as atitudes que os estudantes portugueses têm
relativamente ao Inglês que utilizam, o nível de proficiência que gostariam de atingir e
como vêem estes estudantes uma possível influência da Língua Portuguesa, assim como
o aparecimento de uma variante inglesa com características do Português (Portuguese
English); ABSTRACT:The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse and draw some conclusions about
the English used in Portugal and how the Portuguese language can influence it. Data are
collected through theoretical research and fieldwork based on quantitative and
qualitative approaches (questionnaire and interview) used with university students from
various degree courses at the University of Évora. The main aim of this study is to
understand the attitudes Portuguese students have towards the English they use, the
English proficiency they would like to acquire and how these students feel about the
possible influence of the Portuguese language on the English they use and the
emergence of an English variety with Portuguese features (Portuguese English).
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Li, Ji. "Journal abstracts in China English." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/15329.
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Building upon the macro analysis of the rhetorical structure of the text, Systemic Functional linguistics (SFL), in which Thematic structure and Transitivity processes and other grammatical features are examined, will be utilised to investigate how language is organized to make meaning in journal abstracts in the current study. The purpose of this study is to investigate patterns of similarities and differences between journal abstracts written for a local Chinese readership and international readership by investigating the linguistic features embedded in the abstract part of research articles (RA). The analytical approach facilitated by Santos’s (1996) five move analysis model and the informing SFL linguistic theory is intended to explore the gene structure and features of Chinese English RA abstracts in comparison to the international academics in the World Englishes (WE) context.
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Lopez, Jaramillo Maria Gabriela. "ARE TEACHERS READY FOR ELF? EVIDENCE FROM NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING MA TESOL STUDENTS." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1527.
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This study aimed to explore whether non-native English-language teachers were aware of the existence of the English as a Lingua Franca paradigm and to examine their aspirations and preferences for themselves and their students as learners of English. Five research questions guided the study: 1) What variety of English do non-native teachers aspire to for themselves? 2) What variety of English do non-native teachers aspire to for their students? 3) What environments (native vs. non-native) do they consider to be most conducive for the acquisition of English? 4) Do they emphasize accuracy vs. intelligibility? 5) Is there a relationship between their aspirations and their preferences for accuracy and/or acceptability? The findings provided empirical evidence that non-native English teachers are aware of the different English varieties. The participating teachers seemed to put higher emphasis on intelligibility than on grammatical accuracy if they thought that certain utterances would not impede international communication. The results also revealed a dual orientation in participants' aspirations, where their awareness of the diversity of English varieties and their emphasis on intelligibility was paradoxically contradicted by their own strong preferences for native-like models of pronunciation and lexical knowledge.
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Man, Enoch, and 文爾諾. "Hong Kong English teachers' cognitions of world Englishes and how these cognitions impact on their pedagogical practices." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/212565.
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Recent sociolinguistics research in the study of English has shifted from focusing only on Inner Circle English varieties in Kachru’s (1985) sense to include Outer and Expanding Circle varieties, the phenomenon of which is captured by the term ‘world Englishes’ (WE). This paradigm shift to include WE as acceptable norms has immediate impacts on English language teaching (ELT) as it is suggested that what students learn should approximate the reality of English use worldwide. Research in applied linguistics and language education has discussed the position of WE in ELT (e.g. Jenkins, 2009a), investigated teachers and learners’ perceptions about WE (e.g. Andrews, 2002; He & Li, 2009), and developed curricula that incorporate WE features (e.g. Jenkins, 2002). However, not many studies have looked into how contextual factors have impacted on English teachers’ perceptions about WE and their pedagogical practices.
This thesis presents an in-depth, qualitative study that seeks answers to research questions regarding: (i) the relationship between the cognitions and pedagogical practices of WE of a group of Hong Kong English teachers; and (ii) contextual factors that may influence their reported cognitions and observed practices. Borg’s (2006) schematic conceptualisation of language teacher cognition is adopted as the theoretical and analytical framework, which postulates that language teacher cognition and practices are shaped by their schooling experience, professional coursework, contextual factors as well as their ongoing pedagogical practices. Guided by an embedded-case study approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations of lessons and activities, stimulated recall interviews and documentation analysis. This research takes a Hong Kong secondary school as a single case with five English teachers as embedded cases who participated as the main informants over a period of one school year. To obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the context, additional data were collected from other sources including school administrators, students, and education officials.
An analysis of the data using Borg’s (2006) framework revealed that the informants’ cognitions of WE had been shaped by their experiences as learners, teachers and users of English. The informants’ perceptions were ‘ambivalent’: expressing an embracing view towards WE, but at the same time attaching only to British English in teaching due to local examination and curriculum requirements. The informants’ observed classroom practices also manifested such ambivalence: they were willing to teach a text containing WE features but continuously reminded students to avoid using WE in examinations. This ambivalence seemed to have rooted from their pedagogical focus only on meeting examination requirements and formal English use. Furthermore, this exclusive focus was shared not only among the English teachers, but also by their students, school administration of the case School and education officials, together forming the overarching context shaping the English teachers’ cognitions.
The implications of this study are twofold. First, the informants’ exclusive preference for British English over WE for ELT seems to diverge from WE research suggestions to introduce non-Inner Circle varieties as acceptable norms. Second, their ambivalent view towards WE manifested a tension between maintaining English standards and exposing students to the sociolinguistic reality of English. The findings reveal the teacher informants’ predominant focus on teaching uses of English for examinations, which tend to focus on standard Englishes and formal genres. It is suggested that English teachers should go beyond an uncritical adherence to nation-based English varieties to develop a broader understanding of language variation that takes into account the users, uses and modes of communication (Mahboob, 2014). This study calls for (i) the inclusion of a wider range of language variation in the English curriculum; (ii) more attention to teacher education programmes in strengthening English teachers’ awareness of language variation; and (iii) raising awareness of education and assessment officials towards a broader conceptualisation of language variation.published_or_final_version
Education
Doctoral
Doctor of Education
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Arrieta, Marie. "Teacher and Student Perceptions of World Englishes (WE) Pronunciations in two US Settings." PDXScholar, 2017. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3411.
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The present study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of two groups each of ESL teachers and students in the United States regarding World Englishes (WE) pronunciations before and after watching a video on WE accents. Data gathered via online surveys were analyzed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The results show that the perceptions of the teachers in the study ranged from somewhat negative to mildly positive, both pre- and post-video, which is consistent with Brown's (1993) findings that teachers' perceptions changed little if at all after being briefly exposed to WE stimuli. The education of the teachers in this study did not seem to influence their responses, either. Both groups of teachers responded almost identically even though the Midwest (MW) teachers' education ranged from no TESOL training to MA TESOL and all the teachers in the Northwest (NW) had MA TESOL degrees. These teachers' exposure to WE topics also varied greatly from teacher to teacher. Although the results of the study could not establish a correlation between lack of WE exposure and lack of WE classroom implementation, the teacher responses were, again, consistent with the literature in that the advantages of WE implementation are often appreciated only after extensive training on the matter. Student results were slightly more encouraging than their teachers', as students were generally more enthusiastic about WE before and after stimuli. A majority of students surveyed expressed they would like their teachers to incorporate more WE materials into their lessons and, after watching the video, all but one student indicated they would take an Accents of the World class as they considered it "important to learn about the ways people in other parts of the world speak English."
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Binder, Ella. "World Englishes in Lower Secondary School Textbooks : A comparative study between a Polish and a Swedish Textbook." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Engelska, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-29361.
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The aim of this study has been to find out whether the authors of English textbooks in two EU countries, Poland and Sweden, view diversity and promote World Englishes in the same way or whether there are any differences. The attempt has been made to analyse reading texts in the two textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language, a Polish and a Swedish one, in order to see what different Englishes have been promoted there, and to which extent they are represented in both textbooks. For the purpose of this analysis, Marko Modiano´s descriptive model of World Englishes has been used. The study has shown that the Polish textbook focuses mostly on British and American English, and to a great degree on European countries where English is taught as a foreign language. On the other hand, the Swedish textbook promotes both British and American English, as well as major and local varieties of English, but does not mention European countries, except Great Britain obviously, almost at all. World Englishes are present both in the Polish and in the Swedish textbook but the textbook authors take slightly different approaches in promoting them.
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Dawson, Emma. "Emotion tracking pedagogy (ETP) : a creative pedagogy for the teaching of world Englishes literature." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.440988.
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Finzel, Anna Magdalena. "English in the linguistic landscape of Hong Kong : a case study of shop signs and linguistic competence." Master's thesis, Universität Potsdam, 2012. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2013/6412/.
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Especially for the last twenty years, the studies of Linguistic Landscapes (LLs) have been gaining the status as an autonomous linguistic discipline. The LL of a (mostly) geographically limited area – which consists of e.g. billboards, posters, shop signs, material for election campaigns, etc. – gives deep insights into the presence or absence of languages in that particular area. Thus, LL not only allows to conclude from the presence of a language to its dominance, but also from its absence to the oppression of minorities, above all in areas where minority languages should – demographically seen – be visible. The LLs of big cities are fruitful research areas due to the mass of linguistic data.
The first part of this paper deals with the theoretical and practical research that has been conducted in LL studies so far. A summary of the theory, methodologies and different approaches is given.
In the second part I apply the theoretical basis to my own case study. For this, the LLs of two shopping streets in different areas of Hong Kong were examined in 2010. It seems likely that the linguistic competence of English must be rather high in Hong Kong, due to the long-lasting influence of British culture and mentality and the official status of the language. The case study's results are based on empirical data showing the objectively visible presence of English in both examined areas, as well as on two surveys. Those were conducted both openly and anonymously.
The surveys are a reinsurance measuring the level of linguistic competence of English in Hong Kong. That level was defined before by an analysis of the LL. Hence, this case study is a new approach to LL analysis which does not end with the description of its material composition (as have done most studies before), but which rather includes its creators by asking in what way people's actual linguistic competence is reflected in Hong Kong's LL.Das Forschungsfeld der Linguistic Landscape (LL) hat sich vor allem in den letzten zwanzig Jahren als autonome Disziplin im Bereich der Sprachwissenschaft emanzipiert. Die LL eines meist geografisch eingegrenzten Gebietes – die beispielsweise aus Reklametafeln, Plakaten, Ladenschildern, Wahlkampfpropaganda, etc. besteht – erlaubt tiefe Einblicke in die An- oder Abwesenheit von Sprachen auf dem jeweiligen Gebiet. Die LL lässt dadurch nicht nur Rückschlüsse auf die Dominanz einer Sprache aufgrund ihrer Anwesenheit zu, sondern auch auf die Unterdrückung einer Minderheit durch die Abwesenheit ihrer Sprache an Orten, an denen die Minderheitensprache demografisch gesehen eigentlich sichtbar sein müsste. Wegen des Überflusses an linguistischen Daten in den LLs großer Städte sind diese ergiebige Tätigkeitsfelder für die Disziplin. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich im ersten Teil mit der theoretischen und praktischen Forschung, die es bislang zu diesem Thema gab. Sie prüft den Stand der Theoriebildung, fasst Methodiken zusammen und gibt einen Überblick über verschiedene Ansätze. Im zweiten Teil wird die theoretische Basis auf eine eigene Fallstudie angewendet. Für diese wurden 2010 die LLs zweier Einkaufsstraßen in unterschiedlichen Gegenden Hong Kongs untersucht. Durch den dort lange währenden Einfluss der englischen Kultur und Mentalität und den offiziellen Status der Sprache liegt der Schluss nahe, dass die Sprachkompetenz des Englischen in Hong Kong eher hoch sein muss. Die Ergebnisse der Fallstudie basieren sowohl auf der Erhebung von statistischen Daten, die die objektive Anwesenheit des Englischen in der LL beider untersuchten Gegenden zeigt, als auch auf zwei daraus resultierenden Befragungen. Diese wurden zum einen offen, zum anderen anonym durchgeführt. Die Befragungen stellen eine Rückversicherung dar, die den Grad der Sprachkompetenz des Englischen in Hong Kong misst, welcher zuvor anhand der LL festgestellt wurde. Damit bietet die Fallstudie einen neuen Ansatz der Untersuchung einer LL, der im Gegensatz zu vorangegangenen Studien nicht bei der Beschreibung ihrer materiellen Beschaffenheit endet, sondern auch ihre Schöpfenden miteinbezieht und sich fragt, inwiefern die LL von Hong Kong die tatsächliche Sprachkompetenz der Menschen widerspiegelt.
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Shrestha, Dipak. "Nepali English and news discourse : a linguistic and sociolinguistic study of Australian and Nepail news texts in English /." Curtin University of Technology, School of Languages and Intercultural Education, 2003. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=16576.
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This thesis describes and analyses distinctive characteristics of the emerging variety of English, that is, Nepali English. It draws on news texts written in Nepali English and compares them with similar news texts appearing in Australian newspapers. On the basis of the analysis, a preliminary taxonomy of markers of Nepali English is established.The research draws theoretical insights from sociolinguistics, contrastive rhetoric/contrastive discourse analysis and the analysis of news as discourse. Findings and the analysis of the findings are presented by using analytical models developed and widely used in the study of non-native varieties of English. Analysis and discussion of the findings suggest that systematic and regular features of Nepali English have developed, and these formal features have specific functions in the context in which they are used.
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Werner, Valentin [Verfasser], Manfred G. Akademischer Betreuer] Krug, and Julia [Akademischer Betreuer] [Schlüter. "The Present Perfect in World Englishes: Charting Unity and Diversity / Valentin Werner. Betreuer: Manfred G. Krug ; Julia Schlüter." Bamberg : University of Bamberg Press, 2014. http://d-nb.info/1058949500/34.
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Olausson, Lovisa. "Navigating the Many Englishes of the World in the Classroom : Teachers’ Attitudes Towards English Accents and How They Work with Accents in the Classroom." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-84207.
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According to the curriculum for upper secondary school, various English accents should be introduced. However, it does not state what accents and how these should be introduced. Both American and British English have had a historical stronghold in Sweden, with both having been preferred in previous curriculums. This study shows that both continue to have a stronghold in Swedish schools, but in a different way. Through a questionnaire, teachers in Sweden were asked to answer how they introduce and work with accents in their own teaching.The teachers that responded to the questionnaire introduce and work with accents to a high degree. It becomes evident that while American and British English are still very much prevalent, other accents are prevalent as well. While the majority of the respondents believed that all accents are equally important to teach, some still upheld the notion that English accents from countries where English is the native language are more important to incorporate in their teaching as these are more commonly heard. Additionally, a majority of the respondents also believed that a student’s grade should not be affected by the accent they use. However, this was dependent on whether or not the accent sounded too Swedish or not and not what English accent the students choose to use or approximate. Thus, the overall results show that the teachers who responded to the questionnaire believe in the importance of introducing accents and teaching accents as well as introducing a wide variety of accents.
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Ahlbrecht, John James. "College Student Rankings of Multiple Speakers in a Public Speaking Context: a Language Attitudes Study on Japanese-accented English with a World Englishes Perspective." PDXScholar, 2018. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4334.
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This language attitudes study used a matched guise technique to compare participant reactions of American-accented English to Japanese-accented English. Participants (n = 40) were college educated adults living in the Portland area who completed an online survey which measured characteristics related to Status, Solidarity, and Dynamism using semantic differential Likert scales. Results showed that while Japanese-accented English received less favorable ratings on the Status and Solidarity dimensions on a statistically significant level, the small effect size may have indicated that the differences were negligible. Interpreting the results from the data through the World Englishes Kachruvian paradigm, it is argued that English learners and users would benefit by focusing more on achieving intelligibility than on attaining perfect control of an idealized variety of English.
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Kachi, Reiko. "Factors predicting native and nonnative listeners' evaluative reactions to Japanese English." The Ohio State University, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1078330131.
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Terblanche, Elizabeth Deborah. "Modelling narrativity in East African English / Elizabeth D. Terblanche." Thesis, North-West University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/7173.
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Narratives are the product of a basic human tendency to make sense of real or imagined experiences. The research question posed in the dissertation is: how is narrativity encoded in East African English? Can the narrativity model in the dissertation distinguish between registers that prototypically focus on narration versus registers that do not primarily focus on narration? The narrativity model consists of four main groups of features, namely Agency, Causation, Contextualisation and Evaluation. These groups are representative of the fundamental structure of narratives: things happen to people at a specific time and place. Agency concerns the people who either instigate or are affected by the events. The things that happen can be denoted by Causation when they are the result of cause and effect in the world. Contextualisation refers to the grounding of events in time and space. Lastly, Evaluation concerns the reactions and attitudes people have towards the events. Eighteen linguistic features such as third person pronouns (part of the Agency group) and past tense verbs (part of the Contextualisation group) were analysed as micro-level indicators of narrativity. The corpus-based investigation analysed the linguistic features used to encode narrativity across 22 spoken and written registers of the East African component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-EA) using WordSmith Tools 4.0. The raw scores for each feature were standardised across all registers to enable comparisons between features, as well as between registers. The results indicate that narrativity is a gradient phenomenon that occurs across a variety of East African English spoken and written registers. After the initial analyses were done, the narrativity model was revised to include only 11 core narrativity features. These features are past tense verbs, third person pronouns, proper nouns for persons, activity verbs, time and place adverbials, perfect aspect, emotional stance verb feel, first person pronouns, evaluative adjectives and non-finite causative clauses. ICE-EA registers that focus on narration as a MEANS to make sense of experiences (the objective or END) are Fiction, Social letters, Oral narratives, Face-to-face conversation and Legal cross-examination. In other words, the core narrativity features are the MEANS and the END is to make sense of experiences and facilitate understanding using narration. Twelve registers have an intermediate focus on narrativity. Narration is a secondary or simultaneous objective in these registers alongside primary objectives such as scientific exposition, persuasiveness, information presentation or interpersonal interaction. There are five registers with low scores for the core narrativity features: Student writing, Business letters, Popular writing, Academic writing and Instructional writing. These registers do not primarily focus on narration and have other primary and even secondary objectives such as scientific exposition and persuasiveness. The narrativity model sheds light on the way narrativity is encoded using linguistic features and gives insight into East African English register variationThesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011
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Yu, Yang. "ATTITUDES OF LEARNERS TOWARD ENGLISH: A CASE OF CHINESE COLLEGE STUDENTS." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1283303545.
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DOPPIATI, ERICA. "La lingua inglese in Cina: profilo linguistico e socio-culturale." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/933.
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Un fattore determinante che ha influito sull’enorme espansione dell’inglese nel mondo, nel corso degli ultimi secoli, è stato il ruolo assunto da tale lingua sulla scena mondiale, in particolare nell’ambito economico-culturale: l’inglese è uscito dai suoi confini naturali diventando lingua globale, entrando in contatto con nuovi ambienti e diverse lingue e di conseguenza sviluppando nuove varietà che probabilmente diventeranno in futuro nuove lingue autonome.
Oggi anche in Cina, contrariamente al passato, non molto lontano, si avverte un forte e diffuso desiderio di imparare l'inglese, soprattutto tra le giovani generazioni, tra le persone istruite e preferibilmente tra coloro che vivono in città o che hanno contatti al di fuori dei confini nazionali e che utilizzano l’inglese come lingua della comunicazione scientifica, economica, finanziaria e tecnologia. L’inglese non è più considerato una minaccia, sia culturale che politica dal governo che ne incentiva l’apprendimento. Questa crescita nel numero di persone che imparano e parlano inglese, parallelamente alla diffusione di tale lingua, favorisce la nascita e l’affermazione di una nuova varietà linguistica che va sempre più differenziandosi dall’inglese originario. La presente ricerca si propone di analizzare tale fenomeno di variazione dell’inglese in Cina, attraverso l’osservazione e la rilevazione di dati riguardanti l'uso e le occorrenze del genitivo sassone e di altre strutture premodificatrici del sostantivo, caratterizzanti questa emergente varietà di lingua inglese, indagando al tempo stesso anche alcune sue fondamentali coordinate socio-linguistiche.The crucial factor in the development of English over the last few centuries is its role in the world arena. English has been brought into contact with new environments and languages, and, as a result, has developed into new directions and into new varieties. In today’s China there is an astounding desire to learn English, especially among the educated and the people living in cities, and to use it as a means of communication outside the national borders. This growth in the number of people, who learn and speak English, seems to be contributing to a distinctive variety. The present research aims at contributing to this field of study by analyzing the use and occurrences of the Saxon genitive, of-constructions, and other noun modification structures within this emerging variety of English and the framework of its sociolinguistic features.
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DOPPIATI, ERICA. "La lingua inglese in Cina: profilo linguistico e socio-culturale." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/933.
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Un fattore determinante che ha influito sull’enorme espansione dell’inglese nel mondo, nel corso degli ultimi secoli, è stato il ruolo assunto da tale lingua sulla scena mondiale, in particolare nell’ambito economico-culturale: l’inglese è uscito dai suoi confini naturali diventando lingua globale, entrando in contatto con nuovi ambienti e diverse lingue e di conseguenza sviluppando nuove varietà che probabilmente diventeranno in futuro nuove lingue autonome.
Oggi anche in Cina, contrariamente al passato, non molto lontano, si avverte un forte e diffuso desiderio di imparare l'inglese, soprattutto tra le giovani generazioni, tra le persone istruite e preferibilmente tra coloro che vivono in città o che hanno contatti al di fuori dei confini nazionali e che utilizzano l’inglese come lingua della comunicazione scientifica, economica, finanziaria e tecnologia. L’inglese non è più considerato una minaccia, sia culturale che politica dal governo che ne incentiva l’apprendimento. Questa crescita nel numero di persone che imparano e parlano inglese, parallelamente alla diffusione di tale lingua, favorisce la nascita e l’affermazione di una nuova varietà linguistica che va sempre più differenziandosi dall’inglese originario. La presente ricerca si propone di analizzare tale fenomeno di variazione dell’inglese in Cina, attraverso l’osservazione e la rilevazione di dati riguardanti l'uso e le occorrenze del genitivo sassone e di altre strutture premodificatrici del sostantivo, caratterizzanti questa emergente varietà di lingua inglese, indagando al tempo stesso anche alcune sue fondamentali coordinate socio-linguistiche.The crucial factor in the development of English over the last few centuries is its role in the world arena. English has been brought into contact with new environments and languages, and, as a result, has developed into new directions and into new varieties. In today’s China there is an astounding desire to learn English, especially among the educated and the people living in cities, and to use it as a means of communication outside the national borders. This growth in the number of people, who learn and speak English, seems to be contributing to a distinctive variety. The present research aims at contributing to this field of study by analyzing the use and occurrences of the Saxon genitive, of-constructions, and other noun modification structures within this emerging variety of English and the framework of its sociolinguistic features.
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Widney, Brittany M. "ESL Students Recognition of and Attitudes Towards American Regional Dialects." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1429803862.
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Wasserman, Gertruida Petronella. "Modality on trek : diachronic changes in written South African English across text and context / G.P. Wasserman." Thesis, North West University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/13042.
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This study describes the diachronic development of modality in South African English (henceforth SAfE) from the early 19th century up to its contemporary state (1820s to 1990s) in the registers of letters, news, fiction/narrative and non-fiction, on the basis of the theoretical framework of socio historical linguistics and the empirical approach of corpus linguistics. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted for modal and quasi-modal verbs, by means of the newly compiled historical corpus of SAfE and ICE-SA (with the addition of Afrikaans corpora for comparison). The study explores general frequency changes, register-internal changes and macro- and micro semantic changes, with the focus of the main semantic analysis more strongly on the obligation and necessity cluster1. A set of parameters is compiled for analysing the strength of obligation in the modals must and should, and the quasi-modal HAVE to, and is applied in the micro semantic analyses. The findings are compared with the trends for modality in other native English’s, such as American, British and Australian English (cf. e.g. Mair & Leech, 2006; Collins, 2009a; Leech, 2011), in an attempt to present a complete and comprehensive description of SAfE modality, as opposed to the traditional approach of focusing on peculiar features. It is reported that the trends of modality in SAfE correspond to those of other native varieties in some cases, but do not correspond in others. The modals of SAfE for example have declined more and the quasi-modals have increased less over the 20th century than in other native varieties of English. One particular case, in which SAfE is reported to be unique among other varieties, is the quantitative and qualitative trends for must, which has some implications for the manifestation of the democratisation process. Must in SAfE has not declined significantly over the 20th century (as it has in other native varieties) and has become less face threatening, since uses with a median (weaker) degree of force are just as frequent as those with a higher degree of force by the 1990s (unlike in other native varieties, where must has become restricted to high-degree obligative contexts). Based on socio historical, as well as linguistic evidence (on both quantitative and qualitative levels), language contact with Afrikaans is posited as the main influence for the increased use of must in contexts that are not face threatening. Extrapolating from the semantic findings, some new insights are offered regarding the phase in which SAfE finds itself within Schneider’s (2003) model of the evolution of New English’s, and some support is offered for Bekker’s (2012:143) argument that “SAfE is ...the youngest of the colonial varieties of English”, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Ultimately, this thesis offers a piece in the larger puzzle that is SAfE, both in terms of linguistic (textual) and socio historical (contextual) aspects.PhD (English), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014
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McKenzie, Robert M. "A quantitative study of the attitudes of Japanese learners towards varieties of English speech : aspects of the sociolinguistics of English in Japan." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/1519.
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Language attitude studies focussing specifically on native speaker perceptions of varieties of English speech have demonstrated consistently that standard varieties tend to be evaluated positively in terms of competence/ status whilst non-standard varieties are generally rated higher in terms of social attractiveness/ solidarity. However, the great majority of studies which have investigated non-native attitudes have tended to measure evaluations of ‘the English language’, conceptualised as a single entity, thus ignoring the substantial regional and social variation within the language. This is somewhat surprising considering the importance of attitudes towards language variation in the study of second language acquisition and in sociolinguistics. More specifically, there is a dearth of in-depth quantitative attitude research in Japan concentrating specifically on social evaluations of varieties of English, as the limited number of previous studies conducted amongst Japanese learners have either been qualitative in design or too small in scale. Moreover, the findings of these studies have been somewhat inconclusive. The present quantitative study, employing a range of innovative direct and indirect techniques of attitude measurement, investigated the perceptions of 558 Japanese university students of six varieties of English speech. The results obtained suggest that Japanese learners are able to differentiate between speech varieties within a single language of which they are not native speakers and hold different and often complex attitudes towards (a) standard/ non-standard and (b) native/ non-native varieties of English speech. For instance, the learners rated both the standard and non-standard varieties of inner circle speech more highly than varieties of expanding circle English in terms of prestige. In contrast, it was found that the learners expressed higher levels of solidarity with the Japanese speaker of heavily-accented English and intriguingly, with speakers of non-standard varieties of UK and US English than with speakers of standard varieties of inner circle English. Moreover, differences in the Japanese students’ gender, level of self-perceived competence in English, level of exposure to English and attitudes towards varieties of Japanese all had significant main effects on perceptions of varieties of English speech. However, the regional provenance of the informants was not found to be significant in determining their language attitudes. The results also imply that Japanese learners retain representations of varieties of English speech and draw upon this resource, whether consciously or unconsciously, in order to identify and evaluate (speakers of) these speech varieties. The findings are discussed in relation to the pedagogical and language planning implications for the choice of linguistic model in English language teaching both inside and outwith Japan and in terms of the methodological importance of the study for potential future attitudinal research in this area.
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Tosi, Bianca. "English as a lingua franca (elf): Un caso di studio sulle linee guida per gli autori di articoli scientifici." Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2015. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/8146/.
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La lingua inglese ha subito negli ultimi secoli una diffusione senza precedenti e viene oggi utilizzata in tutto il mondo come mezzo di comunicazione. Da questo fenomeno inedito emergono nuove prospettive di ricerca; le lingue sono infatti in continua evoluzione e si modificano attraverso l’uso. La lingua inglese, così largamente utilizzata in tutto il mondo, si sta quindi trasformando, e presenta oggi ai ricercatori aspetti originali ed innovativi. L’utilizzo dell’inglese come mezzo di comunicazione tra parlanti appartenenti a diverse linguaculture viene chiamato “ELF”, English as a Lingua Franca. Lo scopo di questa tesi è di esporre i punti fondamentali delle ricerche degli ultimi anni sull’argomento e di realizzare un piccolo studio di caso su questo tema. Lo studio avrà come oggetto le linee guida per gli autori di articoli scientifici fornite da un campione di 100 riviste specialistiche, che sono state esaminate al fine di individuare riferimenti alla lingua inglese, alle sue varietà e a parlanti nativi e non nativi. L’obbiettivo sarà quindi quello di ottenere un idea generale sulla posizione dei parlanti non nativi all’interno della comunità scientifica.
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Tizzano, Elena, and Agnes Rauer. "Teaching English with a Pluricentric Approach: a Compilation of Four Upper Secondary Teachers’ Beliefs." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-32538.
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One of our first courses at the teacher education program introduced us to how the English language could be taught with an approach we had not thought of before. In particular, the course discussed what it could mean for educators of English to implement a pluricentric approach in their teaching. As future teachers, we gained a whole new perspective on the implications of teaching an international language as English and the benefits it could have by doing so, such as the increment of intercultural awareness. However, during our internships we noticed that in-service teachers often have a rather monolithic way of teaching English, mostly targeting varieties in their teaching that originated from native-speaking countries such as, the United States and the United Kingdom. We conducted a qualitative research with the aim to investigate the beliefs of four upper secondary teachers of English, currently working at two different schools in Malmö, about teaching English with a pluricentric approach. To gather the data we used semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study show that on the one hand, most of the participating teachers express a desire to expose the students to different varieties of English and think of this as important. On the other hand, the investigation shows that the participating teachers prioritise other aspects in their choices, such as content, level and availability of the teaching material and consider variety not as a priority.
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Höhn, Nicole [Verfasser], and Christian [Akademischer Betreuer] Mair. "Quotatives in the Jamaican acrolect : corpus-based variationist studies of vernacular globalisation in World Englishes = Redeeinleitende verbale Ausdrücke im jamaikanischen Akrolekt : korpus-basierte variationistische Studien zur Globalisierung von umgangssprachlichen Formen in Varietäten des Englischen." Freiburg : Universität, 2011. http://d-nb.info/1114752479/34.
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Munsch, Mathieu. "English as a Lingua Franca in Europe : How is Cultural Diversity Expressed in the Common Tongue?" Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-232456.
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This thesis argues against the claim of linguistic and cultural homogenization widely believed to be induced by the spread of English worldwide by looking at how native and non-native speakers alike re-appropriate the perceived model of 'Standard English' to fit the frames of their own culture and to express their own identity. The hypothesis that this thesis builds on is that the language each of us speaks reflects one's own individual background, the communities that one belongs to, and the identity that one wants to convey. As English is assimilated by the people of the world, their cultural diversity is re-expressed through the common language. By looking at the ways in which English is used in a multicultural setting and at the speakers' attitudes towards it, this paper makes a claim for an alternative to the current educational paradigm in refocusing English teaching on its potential for intercultural communication rather than on specific knowledge of Anglo-American cultures. In order to identify the cultural factors that are involved in the production of one's speech in English as a lingua franca situations, the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) – a collection of naturally occurring spoken interactions in English – will be used. Close attention will be paid to the communicative strategies that the participants use, to the way their identities are expressed in their speech, to instances of code-switching or to neologisms that they may use, and to the ways in which they accommodate each other whenever communication is not clear.
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Ivanoff, Johanna, and Amanda Andersson. "Constructing 'the Other': A Study of Cultural Representation in English Language Textbooks." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-33542.
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Educational textbooks have the power to influence pupils’ perception of the world. In the subject of English, this specifically concerns learning about cultures in different parts of the world where English is used. The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of cultural representation in two English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks with the aim to make the hidden curriculum visible and to raise awareness among publishing houses and teachers. Using a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) based on Fairclough’s (2001) three-dimensional model in combination with Barthes’ (1977) Visual Semiotics methodology, we investigated which regions and countries were presented and how their cultures were constructed through texts and images. These findings were further compared to the cultural values and content of the Swedish curriculum, the genre of textbooks, and existing hegemonic discourses in society. In the analysis, Kachru’s (1986) Circles of World Englishes, Machin and Mayr’s (2012) toolkit for CDA, McKay’s (2010) interpretation of Anderson’s (1983) imagined communities, and Said’s (2003) concept of Orientalism were applied. Our findings show that the inner circle dominates and is depicted as superior in contrast to the outer and expanding circles. Although the textbooks include a variation of different cultures which is in line with the curriculum, representation of the outer and expanding circles is often stereotypical and underdeveloped which reinforces hegemonic discourses instead of acting to restructure them. This corresponds to previous studies in the genre, and hence, educators must work to ensure that the hidden curriculum in ELT textbooks is continuously made visible and challenged.
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Islam, S. M. Arifull. "English Vowels: A World English Perspective." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-1241.
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In spite of having a fixed standard of pronunciation, English is being used in various ways in parts of the world, particularly in its way of utterance. English vowel is playing one of the significant roles in making different varieties of English language. This essay tries to see into detail how some phonetic features (formant movement, frequency, pitch) of English vowels vary in relation to Bengali, Catalan, Italian, Spanish and Swedish speakers. It has been found that all these speakers vary a lot from each other in the utterance of English vowels.
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Silber, Janet Vivian. "Back to The World." NCSU, 2005. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04262005-203255/.
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Back to The World is a collection of twelve short stories. They may be dark, but I believe the dark places are where we gather up our humanity and our power. We all have challenges: the ones that are given us and the ones we make. My stories are filled with ordinary people dealing with the lives they have, with dignity, hope and the pain and messiness that goes with being human and alive.
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Tuhaienko, V. "The spread of English around the world." Thesis, Київський національний університет технологій та дизайну, 2020. https://er.knutd.edu.ua/handle/123456789/15241.
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Heuvel, Lisa L. "English Mineral Exploration in the New World." W&M ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626476.
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Juhasz, Audrey Constance. "Maintaining Spanish in an English-Speaking World." DigitalCommons@USU, 2013. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1952.
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As the Latino portion of the United States population continues to grow each year, more and more children in the United States leave their Spanish-speaking homes and enter English immersion schools. Throughout their lives, these children are likely to shift language preferences from their home language, to the language of the community. However, maintaining development in their first language would be a benefit to them in multiple ways. Identifying factors within bilingual homes that influence English and Spanish language development in preschool-aged children will help researchers and practitioners encourage families to cultivate the optimal learning environment. This study endeavored to identify some specific social, linguistic, and literacy-related factors within the home that predict Spanish and English language development in 4-year-old children from low-income, predominantly Spanish-speaking families. Extant data from the Bilingual Early Language and Literacy Support Project (BELLS) were analyzed. Data were collected in participants' homes using various measures of the home and family environment. Results indicated children may begin to repress their first language in order to focus on learning a second language as early as 48 months. Maternal use of unique words, in Spanish, was a strong predictor of children's English expressive vocabulary, indicating that continuing to provide a rich language environment in the home language facilitates English language development. Furthermore, current measures of literacy and learning environments may be missing important behaviors present in Latino families that are distinctly different from behaviors in Caucasian families, thus making such measures inapt to predict language-related outcomes in Latino homes.
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Ladner, Jocelyn B. Neuleib Janice. "Performing the word, transforming the word, writing the word alternative teaching strategies for freshman composition /." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p3172879.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2004.Title from title page screen, viewedNovember 17, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Janice Neuleib (chair) , Patricia A. Dunn, Nancy Tolson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-126) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Hensley, Martin. "The Green World of Dystopian Fiction." TopSCHOLAR®, 2006. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/276.
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Northrop Frye was the first theorist to develop the green world archetype; Frye used the term to refer to a recurring motif in Shakespearean comedy. In several of Shakespeare's comedies, the protagonists leave the civilized world and venture into the green world, or nature, to escape from the irrational law of society, which is the case in such comedies as As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Elements of the green world can also be found in Shakespearean tragedy, where the natural retreat serves as a temporary escape for the protagonists. Such a green world exists in three of the most well known examples of dystopian fiction: George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. In these three novels, the protagonists take flight from the repressive dystopia and journey into nature. In the green world, the protagonists attain individual freedom and identity and experience emotions, passions, beauty, the past, and the power of language. Each of these elements, which are associated with the green world, stand in opposition to the dystopian society's doctrine. The green world, then, becomes an escape, a place where the protagonists can temporarily live a free life away from the tyrannical powers of the dystopic society. The dystopian green world experience follows a pattern of flight, immersion, and departure. In the first segment, the protagonists flee from the oppressive society and into nature; in the second, they immerse themselves within the green world where they experience new sensations, emotions, and gain new insights and understanding; in the third, the protagonists depart the green world and return to the civilized world in order to confront it with the knowledge they have gained while immersed in the green world. This pattern can also be viewed as a symbolic cycle that moves from death to rebirth to death. The first death is the death-like stasis of the dystopia and of the protagonist, who is just a part of the whole and not truly an individual. The symbolic rebirth conies when the protagonists depart the green world as individuals with new know ledge and experiences. Lastly, the second symbolic, or sometimes literal death, comes when the protagonists confront the dystopia with their new knowledge, have that knowledge challenged by an agent of the dystopia, usually in the form of a trial, and, finally, are symbolically or literally destroyed by the dystopian agent.
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Kaprava, Anna. "The importance of English in the modern world." Thesis, Київський національний університет технологій та дизайну, 2019. https://er.knutd.edu.ua/handle/123456789/13067.
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Heathcote, William. "Acquiring English Through The Game World of Warcraft." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Lärarutbildningen (LUT), 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-35829.
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This study investigates the learning experiences of three L2 learners of English in connection to the massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft (WoW). The participants, who all attend the course English A at upper secondary school at the time of the study, are frequent players of the game.By writing journals, the participants were asked to report on their learning experiences in direct connection to playing the game. In addition to this they were also interviewed in order to gain a further understanding of their linguistic development through the game.The research shows that the participants were very positive to the learning experiences attached to the game. They all had an abundance of examples to show for their linguistic skills improving significantly by playing the game. Especially the opportunity to engage in authentic dialogue with co-players in English reportedly greatly improved their linguistic skills. However, some doubts exist as to the teaching benefits of the game as most participants were negative to using the game in a setting of instructed learning.
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Kroska, Aaron. "In Some Asbestos World." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2131.
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This thesis consists of a collection of poems which explore the relationship between the imagination and that mysterious thing we call reality. They engage with the Emmanuel Kant's notion of the dichotomy between subject and object; thus, one of the central concerns of the project is whether the object can ever be understood by a subject, whose mind imposes its categories and other forms of mediation upon whatever it perceives. The poems also engage with Wallace Stevens' notion of a "Supreme Fiction," as the only means left to us, however imperfect it may be, with which we might approach the "original idea" that all other perceptions of reality only approximate. In the absence of the certainty of an interrogated reality, negative space, that which cannot be perceived by the senses, is explored, proposed, gestured toward. That genius behind the infinity of the world.
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Khan, Nosheen. "Women's poetry of the First World War." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1986. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/66938/.
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This thesis seeks to study women's poetic response to the First World War a hitherto neglected area of the literature inspired by the war. It attempts to retrieve from oblivion the experience of the muted half of society as rendered in verse and document as far as possible the full range of the poetic impact the war made upon female sensibility. It is thematic in structure and concentrates upon the more recurrent of attitudes and beliefs which surface in women's war writings. The thematic structure was adopted to cover as wide a range as possible of the ways the historical experience could be met and interpreted in literature. This study takes into account the work of the established writers of the period as well as the amateur versifiers who made war their subject. The first chapter discusses verse which defines the nature of war as apprehended by the female consciousness. Chapter Two examines the poets' use of religious concept and image to lend meaning and purpose to an event entirely at variance with the ideals employed to explain it. The third chapter considers the exploitation of the perennial poetic subject of nature to interpret war by accommodating it into the language and thought of an apparently alien literary tradition. War as it impinged upon the consciousness of people on the Home Front is discussed in Chapter Four; it is partly concerned with revising the calumnious images of women in war time as set out by the soldier poets. Chapter Five looks into the writing of those women who wrote out of their experience of working in the various organisations which were an integral part of the machinery of warfare. War as an experience of suffering - suffering peculiar to the female - defines Chapter Six. The purpose of this study has been to suggest the variety of literary responses to the First World War by those who, at great cost, produce the primal munition of war - men - with which their destinies are inextricably ,linked. As part of a response to a particular historical event, the literary interpretation of which has conditioned modern war consciousness, women's war poetry is not without relevance for it adds a new dimension to the established canon of war literature and correspondingly a new vista to understanding the truth of war.
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Biermeier, Thomas. "Word formation in new Englishes a corpus based analysis." Berlin Münster Lit, 2008. http://d-nb.info/988766590/04.
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Kallunki, K. P. (Kari-Pekka). "Learning English in World of Warcraft:perspectives from the players." Master's thesis, University of Oulu, 2016. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201603111310.
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This thesis seeks to investigate how an online video game called ‘World of Warcraft’ facilitates learning English as a second language and provide a critical analysis of both advantages and disadvantages of this type of informal language learning. The relevance for this study stems from the fact that playing video games has risen in popularity since the beginning of 2000s, and approximately 35 percent of the playerbase in World of Warcraft, for example, are female players. This means that more and more people are learning English from video games. The data for this study has been gathered by conducting a survey for European World of Warcraft players, asking them to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences on learning English in World of Warcraft. The results of the survey are analysed from the perspective of formal English education in order to evaluate whether the language in video games pose a threat to the objectives of formal language education or if there is something that formal teaching could take from learning English in video games. The aims of formal language education have started to shift from native-like proficiency towards achieving communicational competency. Networked online video games are one of the most accessible ways to converse and interact with people from all over the world. Hampel (2006) and Furstenberg (1997) say that computer-assisted language learning provides the learners opportunities to actively participate and collaborate with their peers in language learning situations without the need for physical attendance. Sylvén and Sundqvist (2012) say that World of Warcraft provides its players authentic situations to hear and practice English. According to Gee (2003, 2007), video games inspire genuine motivation, which alongside authenticity is something that schools often have difficulties to reproduce. Gee (2007) also says that video games are an effective platform for learning because the learning in them becomes ‘situated’, meaning that the language in the game is constantly supported by the visual and auditory clues and actions from the player. Saarenkunnas (2006) notes that this is why children are quite adeptly able to play video games in English even at a young age. The results evoke mixed opinions. On one hand, playing World of Warcraft appears to be an immersive and effective way to learn new and even complex vocabulary. World of Warcraft also functions as a social platform for the players to collaborate, interact and communicate with each other. On the other hand, English is mostly spoken as an international language in the game, which means that a learner is exposed to various different Englishes that might not always conform to the basic rules of English spelling, syntax and grammar. Thus, World of Warcraft might not be the best place to learn to speak English correctly, and the level of social engagement and exposure to English language is rather dependent on the player’s own activity and preferences. Toxic language and behavior is often mentioned in the responses, which leads to the question if a game community like this can be considered to be socially encouraging. A question for future research would be how video games can be harnessed for the uses of formal language education while ensuring that only positive effects on learning English are transferredTämän Pro Gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena on tutkia, millä tavoin verkossa pelattava moninpeli World of Warcraft edesauttaa englannin oppimista vieraana kielenä. Samalla tavoitteena on kriittisesti arvioida pelaamisen kautta tapahtuvan kielenoppimisen hyötyjä ja haittoja. Videopelien pelaaminen on yleistynyt 2000-luvulta lähtien, ja esimerkiksi World of Warcraftin pelaajakunnasta noin 35 prosenttia on naispuolisia pelaajia. Videopeleillä on alati laajeneva kohderyhmä, ja englantia opitaan yhä enemmän pelien kautta, joten on aiheellista tutkia kielenoppimista peleissä kouluopetuksen näkökulmasta. Tämä tutkimus perustuukin eurooppalaisilla World of Warcraftin pelaajilla teetettyyn kyselyyn, jossa heitä pyydettiin kertomaan ajatuksiaan, mielipiteitään ja kokemuksiaan liittyen englannin oppimiseen World of Warcraftin kautta. Tutkimuksen eräänä tavoitteena on myös selvittää, onko videopelien avulla tapahtuvaa englannin oppimista syytä pitää uhkana koulujärjestelmän asettamien kielenoppimisen tavoitteiden kannalta vai voitaisiinko videopeleistä ottaa jopa vaikutteita kouluopetukseen. Verkossa pelattavat moninpelit ovatkin yksi kätevimmistä keinoista päästä harjoittelemaan englantia kansainvälisessä kontekstissa. Hampel (2006) ja Furstenberg (1997) sanovat, että tietokonepohjaisissa kielenoppimistilanteissa oppija pääsee toimimaan aktiivisena osallistujana ja saa tehdä yhteistyötä muiden oppijoiden kanssa. Sylvén ja Sundqvist (2012) jatkavat, että World of Warcraft tarjoaa pelaajilleen mahdollisuuksia käyttää englantia aidonkaltaisissa vuorovaikutustilanteissa. Gee (2003, 2007) puolestaan sanoo, että videopelit herättävät pelaajassa aitoa motivaatiota oppimista kohtaan. Gee (2007) myös perustelee videopelien tehokkuutta kielenoppimisen välineenä sanomalla, että kieli on peleissä vahvasti kontekstualisoitua. Pelissä suoritetut toiminnot ja pelin tarjoamat kuvalliset ja äänelliset vihjeet siis tukevat kielen ymmärtämistä ja helpottavat oppimista. Saarenkunnas (2006) toteaakin, että tästä syystä myös nuoret lapset kykenevät pelaamaan englanninkielisiä pelejä. Tutkimuksesta saadut tulokset kuitenkin antavat ristiriitaisen kuvan kielenoppimisesta World of Warcraftissa. Toisaalta pelaaminen on helppo ja mielenkiintoinen tapa oppia uutta ja monimutkaista sanastoa. World of Warcraft myös tarjoaa pelaajilleen sosiaalisen ympäristön, jossa harjoitella englannin puhumista autenttisissa kielenkäyttötilanteissa. Toisaalta taas pelaajien puhuman englannin taso vaihtelee puhujakohtaisesti, eikä pelissä puhuttu kieli noudata aina kaikkia englannin kielioppi- tai oikeinkirjoitussääntöjä. Pelissä myös törmää usein epäsoveliaaseen kielenkäyttöön ja käytökseen, joten pelin kannustavuus kielenoppimisympäristönä voidaan kyseenalaistaa. Kouluopetuksessa voitaisiin kuitenkin ottaa mallia videopelien tavasta luoda motivoivia ja autenttisia kielenkäyttötilanteita. Jatkotutkimuksessa voitaisiinkin selvittää, miten videopeleistä saadut kielenoppimisen hyödyt voitaisiin valjastaa kouluopetuksen käyttöön siten, että vain kielenoppimisen kannalta myönteiset vaikutukset siirtyvät pelistä oppijaan
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Burkhart, Matthew Richard. ""Travels in the Glittering World": Transcultural Representations of Navajo Country." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195353.
Full textAbstract:
In "Travels in the Glittering World": Transcultural Representations of Navajo Country, I compare how Dine (Navajo) writers and Euroamerican nature writers represent their experience of Dine culture and the place of the Navajo Nation. This project repositions the scope of analysis common to broader regional studies of the U.S. Southwest by engaging the many ways that representations of Dine Bikeyah (Navajo Country), as a nation linked to other political entities, have refracted the cultural concerns of several twentieth and twenty-first century writers and filmmakers. Centrally, I consider how representations stand in relation to the cultivation of cultural sovereignty. In doing so, I consider the limits and applicability of interpretive models, including "communitism," the "Peoplehood Matrix," and expansive imaginings of literary nationalism. Following scholars such as Lloyd Lee, I consider how elements of contemporary Dine identity--"worldview, land, language, kinship . . . [and] respect for their ancestors' ability to survive colonialism"--factor into twentieth-century texts (92). Responding to texts addressing several historical periods, I consider how artists address the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, stock reduction, integration into wage economies and the development of extractive industries, relocation, and periods of contemporary migration. Throughout, I consider how rootedness in culture and place allows Navajos to embrace paths of mobility and mindful alliances, which counteract forces which would confine them to the space of the reservation, to the status of a resource colony, or to the role as imagined font of exotic otherness. I consider how Euroamerican nature writers, with limited success, work against the impulse to tint Navajo Country in the sepia hues of primitivist nostalgia to embrace instead a restorative ethos that might support efforts to advance goals of cultural sovereignty. I consider how Dine authors call upon earlier Navajo literary traditions, as well as anti-colonial texts from other cultures, to negotiate the desire to "root" identity in a fixed place while traversing "routes" through and beyond Navajo Country, connecting that nation to larger networks of cultural exchange, urban relocation, economic necessity, travel, and pan-tribal, if not global, alliances working for the purposes of cultural sovereignty and environmental justice.
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Clarke, Anna. "In a postcolonial world : the Indian novel in English." Thesis, University of Essex, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.423519.
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